The player on the left is Gary Mabbutt playing against Feyenoord in the UEFA Cup second round in 1983. He spent 16 years at Tottenham, captaining the team from 1987 until 1998 and was the first captain I can remember after starting to support Spurs during the 1994/5 season.
Mabbutt overcame several barriers to becoming a professional footballer, including Type 1 diabetes and severe asthma and he also battled to return to the first team after two serious injuries; a fractured skull sustained in a match against Wimbledon in 1993 and badly breaking his leg in a game at Blackburn in 1996. He led by example both on and off the pitch (he lifted the FA Cup for us in 1991) and now dedicates his time to being a club ambassador and working with street children and diabetes charities.
During the recent pandemic, he revealed how he has been working with a loneliness charity and has personally made over 1,300 phone calls to elderly and vulnerable people since the first lockdown began in March 2020.
Gary on his charity work during the pandemic
Gary embodies the true spirit of Tottenham Hotspur, not ENIC or the travesty that is the proposed European Super League. The only ray of light following the ESL and Jose Mourinho news today is that our former midfielder Ryan Mason may get his chance to shine as a promising young manager in the League Cup Final next Sunday after having his playing career so cruelly cut short by injury aged just 26. Onwards from here. To dare is to do.
Gary relives Tottenham’s 1991 FA Cup Final victory at Wembley
This is Your Life; Gary Mabbutt – 1999
Unexpected bonus. What a good guy Gary Mabbutt is!
Hear hear!